Our investment review process

 

We operate a robust and scientific investment process to help you achieve your long-term financial goals. Our integrated wealth management system offers a planning process unlike anything you are likely to have experienced before.

 

At our first meeting we will explain our review process and ask you for the information that will help us to prepare for a second meeting. At this second meeting we will create financial models that clearly and concisely illustrate your current situation and the projected future growth of your assets. This model will form the basis of all future reviews.

 

Learning about you

 

Taking the time to fully understand your needs both now and in the future allows us to construct a clear financial strategy. As a first step, we learn all we can about your present financial position and the savings and investments you already hold. With your assistance, we will gather all the necessary paperwork that will allow us to determine your current position and the existing planning you have in place. This would include your most recent investment statements, life insurance policies, will, trusts and any other relevant documents, including any business-related ones.

 

Determining your objectives

 

Understanding your needs today and your plans for the future, plus your attitude to risk, are crucial to the planning process. Whatever your goals, the sooner you start planning towards them, the more achievable they are likely to become.

We will discuss your immediate and future financial objectives. Then we look at your present and future income sources and expenditures and determine whether your wealth or income is consistent with your aspirations.

 

We will fully analyse and evaluate your personal situation, taking into account lifetime issues such as protecting against capital loss, your time horizon, maintaining control over your assets and your need for income in retirement. Although it's not something any of us want to think about, an integral part of the process is to discuss your wishes for the distribution of your estate on death, so that we can look at solutions for the tax-efficient transfer of your assets to your heirs. At the same time we will seek to protect these assets on divorce, bankruptcy or other events.

 

Assessing your attitude to risk

 

A key element of the planning process is to objectively determine your attitude to risk. We utilise a risk profiling tool that involves asking you a number of psychometric questions. If appropriate, we will ask your partner the same set of questions as they may have a different attitude to risk. The key areas the questions will cover include:

 

Preference for capital preservation versus riskier investment gains
Desire for profit
Preference for the short-term versus the long-term
Financial awareness
Financial experience
Age
Domestic circumstances

Your responses are fed into the modelling tool and your resulting risk profile is usually represented as a number from 1-10 where 1 is a risk-averse client and 10 is a risk-taker. The higher the risk profile, the more you are willing to accept a good amount of short-term fluctuation in the value of your investments in return for the expectation of higher returns in the long-term. We will discuss this profile with you to ensure you agree with the level of risk you are prepared, or need, to accept with your money in order to achieve your financial goals.

 

Constructing your portfolio

 

Once we have a full picture of your current needs, plus your future goals and time horizon, we will construct a financial 'road map'. This will allow us to identify any shortfalls between where your portfolio is currently positioned in terms of its risk and likelihood of achieving your objectives and what you need to meet your future goals. We will then recommend either a rebalancing of your existing portfolio or a new spread of funds that, with your agreement, will be implemented with a view to reconciling any shortfalls and maximising the likelihood of you reaching your goals as tax-efficiently as possible.

 

Updates and reviews

 

Your financial 'road map' is not cast in stone and will need regular review. Pension rights change, new tax laws are implemented, health can become a factor and your needs and goals for the future may alter over time. That's why we will sit down with you regularly to review your strategy and ensure it's still meeting your needs.

 

You can choose from a number of ongoing service levels that include regular review meetings.

 

Our fees and ongoing service levels

 

We aim to be transparent with our fees and guarantee that there will be no hidden charges. You, as the client, are in control of the costs and we therefore need to seek your agreement before any costs are incurred.

 

As we believe it's important that you pay only for the level of service you would like to receive, we offer three service levels that you can select from. The larger your investment value, the more often it should be reviewed so, for example, we would recommend that if the value of your portfolio is over £500,000 you would be better to opt for our wealth optimisation service.

 

However, you are completely free to choose the service level you prefer.

 

In each of the following 3 example client profiles, we will add value to your portfolio through the activities of asset allocation, fund selection, tactical overlay, fund selection and monitoring, fund rebalancing and ensuring that any changes comply with your risk profile.

 

Further, whilst the 3 profiles suggest quarterly, half-yearly or annual reviews, there is nothing to prevent any client having as many reviews as they deem appropriate for them as each review meeting is charged at the same rate as indicated in the 'investment service levels' section of this website.